#carleton young

Tell Your Children (Reefer Madness) (1936) Louis J. Gasnier

Kansas City Confidential | Phil Karlson | 1952

Character Actor

Carleton Scott Young (October 21, 1905 – November 7, 1994)  Character actor born in New York City, New York and known for his deep voice.

Young appeared in 235 American television and film roles with his first being The Fighting Marines (1935). He ended his career in the 1973 television series The Magician which starred Bill Bixby.  He was a member of the John Ford Stock Company.

Frontier Doctor TV Series 1958-1959

You can have a blast with Reefer Madness but do yourself a favor and find a good print of the film. The DVD I got a hold of featured muddy sound, lousy picture quality and offered no subtitle options, severely crippling its enjoyment factor. I’m nevertheless giving the film the benefit of the doubt. Anyone with an ounce of common sense will laugh at this campy over-the-top educational film that gets all the facts completely wrong.

The story concerns a group of innocent teenagers who get mixed up in the drug scene. These unfortunate souls would have never touched the stuff had they known what ultimately comes of it: murder, attempted rape, sex out of wedlock, insanity, suicide, criminal drug rings, police investigations, and guilty verdicts!

I must stress again that if you are interested in Reefer Madness, you need to track down a good print of it. Not a crappy DVD you find at the bottom of a bargain bin for $3, or a video on YouTube. You will need to do some research and find a good, restored print with decent sound and the option of subtitles. Like Night of the Living Dead, the public domain has not been kind to this film. DVDs of Reefer Madness are a dime a dozen but most of them are so bad, they’re nearly unwatchable. The rating I’m giving the film probably doesn’t truly reflect how genuinely entertaining it is, so consider it a warning: to all film viewers out there, do your homework and find the right version of Reefer Madness for your needs. With that out of the way, why should you see this absurd tale of morality?

The film has its heart in the right place, telling the audience about the dangers of drugs and warning them to take marijuana seriously, but the execution is so bad, the research so poor it's impossible to do so. The performances are universally terrible, save Dave O'Brien who isn't actually convincing but does fully commit to his role as a man who ultimately ends up in the loony bin. Not that the actors stood a chance considering the material they were given, but they are all poorly cast. Either the term “teenager” was pretty loose back when the film was made, or they couldn’t find anyone of the proper age to portray the innocent school kids. I swear the depraved drug dealers who own the house most of the action in the film takes place in are the same age as the kids they are selling drugs to.

I’m no expert on this devil’s weed that is marijuana, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t turn women into floozies that tear off their clothes, isn’t addictive and won’t cause anyone to black out then wake believing they've committed murder. You'll holler at the claims and warnings made by Dr. Alfred Carroll. When he's not on-screen, you'll enjoy poking fun at what must've been considered racy at the time but is now chaste. The outdated slang also makes the picture plenty of fun to quote. The best part of the movie has to be the very end, where Dr. Carroll utters “the next tragedy may be that of your daughter... or your son... or yours, or yours...” then, as he points to the camera and with incredible conviction says “... or YOURS!” now that’s some funny stuff.

As far as movies that are so bad they’re good, Reefer Madness can be a mixed bag. There are many moments that are way over-the-top and plenty of memorable scenes and quotable lines, but some slow segments mean I wouldn't place it next to the “classics” like Plan 9 from Outer Space, The Room or Miami Connection. I also cannot stress enough how important it is to get a good print in order to fully enjoy it. Once you've done that, it's great campy fun. (On DVD, July 25, 2014)